Govt employees complain over Sandi-Moyo

Politics
GOVERNMENT employees stationed at Mhlahlandlela complex in Bulawayo and members of the public have alleged that they are forbidden from talking in the presence of minister Eunice Sandi-Moyo.

GOVERNMENT employees stationed at Mhlahlandlela complex in Bulawayo and members of the public have alleged that they are forbidden from talking in the presence of Bulawayo Provincial Affairs minister Eunice Sandi-Moyo.

BENSON DUBE OWN CORRESPONDENT

According to employees at the complex who feared to be identified, they are not allowed to use the elevator when Moyo appears. An elderly Insiza man, George Sibanda, said he was recently pushed and shoved by her security personnel and ended up abandoning the business he had come to conduct at the complex.

“Smartly dressed men pushed me aside and said we must get out of the way as the minister approached from outside to get into the elevator and I had to return home because I did not know what to do,” Sibanda said. A civil servant at the complex said every morning they are forced out of the elevator each time Moyo appears.

“We worked with (former Bulawayo governor) Cain Mathema and we never had problems. We could talk to him and share jokes, but this new minister tells grown-ups that they are making noise,” alleged the worker.

When contacted for comment, Moyo said she was the wrong person to ask adding that she had never witnessed the workers’ allegations.

“If people are barred from entering the elevator then you are asking a wrong department, but I move with my security and have never witnessed that,” she said.

“If my security does that why do they come to you instead of coming to me? Why do you like to always harass me? Lina bafana (you boys) stop harassing me,” she thundered.

Another government employee indicated that Moyo responds positively to being called minister, but will not respond immediately when called Mama or some other respectful title. Moyo recently came under attack from pressure groups in Bulawayo over her refusal to back proposals for locals to be given preference in employment and education opportunities in the province.

Moyo had told the National Assembly that she was not a tribalist and would not support calls for Bulawayo residents to get preference in employment, training or education in the province’s institutions.

She was responding to questions posed by MDC-T MPs Ruth Labode and Dorcas Sibanda who had asked her to respond to concerns that Bulawayo residents were often overlooked for jobs and places at institutions of higher learning.